Taylor v. Commonwealth

I respectfully dissent from so much of the opinion of the majority as holds that an instruction on the presumption of innocence when requested need not be given by the court because the instruction on reasonable doubt suffices. It strikes me as bordering on the fatuous to say that a jury must be instructed on one of the most basic principles of our criminal law but not the other. The reason given for this anomaly in Kentucky jurisprudence has heretofore been that an instruction on the presumption of innocence is “too favorable to the defendant”, Swango v. Commonwealth, 291 Ky. 690, 165 S.W.2d…